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in these foreign ports is five times greater than that of London.

In some directions London tonnage is decreasing, and it is certain that under present methods the existing congestion will accelerate this decrease.

The following table, taken from "The River Trade of the Port of London," by Fluvius, will clinch the argument:

TONNAGE OF SEA-GOING VESSELS OF ALL NATIONS ENTERING THE FOLLOWING PORTS.

(Extracted from the Annual Shipping and Navigation Returns and Consular Reports.)

SHIPPING TONNAGE ENTERING IN 1899 AND IN 1907.

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NOTE.-At London, vessels using the principal docks pay both port dues (1d. ton) and dock dues (1s. 6d. ton), and also a quayage rent (equal to 2d. ton). Vessels using the river pay port dues (1d. ton) only. At present there is no berthing accommodation suitable for large liners to berth at and discharge or load general cargo, except, perhaps, at Purfleet.

In the face of these facts, it is no use to talk of securing the enemies' trade, unless the transport means are provided for obtaining a firm grip on it; and this is impossible as long as the Board of Trade remains absolute to bar the way to reform.

CHAPTER X

CONCLUSION

A HEAVY responsibility rests on the writer of this

book.

If the argument as it has been developed does not convince the reader of the tragic necessity for action, then an opportunity will have been lost; and lost opportunities in this campaign may lead to a national disaster.

The point as to whether the extraordinary importance of the matter has been made patent to the reader, is regarded by the author with a sense of deep anxiety.

It is often the case that a surgeon, who has merely suspected a local sore, is on further exploration appalled by the utter and complete corruption of the body he is dealing with. When the symptoms of railway disease first attracted the attention of Sir George Paish, Mr. H. M. Hyndman, Mr. A. W. Gattie, and others, it was impossible for them to foresee that patient investigation would reveal a condition of affairs so utterly poisonous to the life-springs of the nation.

It is absolutely essential that Board of Trade control of railways should be abolished. It is an imposture. It is a crime.

It will, of course, be said that the present is not the time to disturb existing conditions. With the official it never is the time. This is the invariable red herring drawn across the trail.

To contend that it is not the time to save a minimum

of a million of money a day, when the war bill is mounting up at the rate of five millions a day, is childish. To contend that an economy of £400,000,000 per annum, during war-time, is uncalled for, is an insult to the common sense of the nation.

No man can see the end of the economic benefits to be conferred by using for the first time in history the scientific exchange of goods. It is the rapid exchange of goods which is important. The exchange of money is only a symbol of this fact, the real operation is the exchange of commodities.

To speed up this exchange by four to five hundred per cent. will do far more to put money in the public purse than taxation unaccompanied by the suggested reform.

The danger is imminent. The catastrophe, unless the correction be administered, is unavoidable.

At the moment of writing, an article appears in The Times crying out for more taxation-taxation, at a moment when trade is in need of all the elasticity which can be allowed to it!

The economy of energy is the most important form of saving which can be practised; it is not too much to say that it is finally the only effective form of economy-that it is the only true economy which exists.

The economy of energy has given the German army its wonderful impulsive force. Economy of energy will give our commercial system irresistible dynamic power. Taxation may be in certain cases inevitable, but taxation is always a clog on commercial efficiency.

There is one outstanding reason why this reform should receive immediate consideration. It is improbable that ever again will the labour market be so propitious.

At the moment every man can find work.

If it be contended that munitions are the important point and not railway reform, it can be answered with

irresistible force that the Clearing House, or a reform similarly beneficial, is an integral part of munition production, and that the £14,000,000 spent on the change in London will save hundreds of millions of money and thousands of lives.

At the hour that peace is concluded hundreds of thousands of munition makers will lose their occupation. To establish so-called relief works is more often than not to set men unremuneratively to work, or in other words to squander vast sums of public money and thus further impoverish the nation left povertystricken by the war.

This is a war fought by men and managed by old women. Perhaps the comparison is an insult to old

women.

It is in the highest degree suicidal to continue to act as if the war must end soon. On the contrary, the nation should make up its mind that the first seven years of the war may be the worst.

There is no time to waste with Royal Commissions. The danger involved in the method of procedure adopted by the Royal Commission is this, that the real question, the central point at issue, i.e., the economic expansion of railways, was being lost sight of in a maze of trivialities which have nothing whatever to do with the case.

Not one single question affecting this central point was put, and, without any disrespect to the gentlemen who constitute the Commission, it is a question whether any one of them possesses the necessary knowledge which would enable him to put such a question, or to follow it up. Acres of questions about rates, preferential or ordinary, are a waste of time.

Certain very simple propositions arise from the facts stated in this book. The first of these may be put in the form of a question.

Is it better to continue to take days and weeks in unloading goods wagons and ships, when we know that

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